Box Score

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Playing for the Atlantic Hockey Association championship and a trip in the NCAA Division I tournament, bounces need to go your way. That, unfortunately, was not the case for the Mercyhurst University men's hockey team on Saturday night.

Mercyhurst went through a horrific second period of play at the Blue Cross Arena on Saturday and suffered a 7-2 loss to Canisius College in the AHA title game. The loss ended the Lakers season with a 19-17-5 overall record. The Golden Griffins advance to the Division I tournament for the first time in program history and improved to 19-18-5.

“The second period was an absolute schmozzle,” said Mercyhurst head coach Rick Gotkin jokingly in the post-game press conference. “I've been doing this a long time and it was one of the craziest periods of hockey I've ever been a part of. It was a nightmare second period for us, and yet, through all of it, we were only down 4-2 one minute into the third.”

In that second period, junior forward Kyle Just was given a five-minute major for checking from behind and a game misconduct at the 3:29 mark, sophomore Chris Bodo missed an empty net, freshman Anthony Mastrodicasa's apparent goal from center ice was overturned on an offsides call, and senior Paul Chiasson was out of service for roughly ten minutes because of a broken skate.

“It's a tough game some nights, but I certainly give Canisius credit for not letting us get going,” added Gotkin.

The downward spiral started when Just was given the five-minute major on a call that could have gone either way.

“We were hoping for a two there,” said junior defenseman Nick Jones. “We thought he kind of wrapped him up, but that's the way the game is. We just needed to get a kill and get going from there.”  Chiasson added, “I'm not sure it should have been a five, but those are the breaks in hockey. We just didn't answer the call.”

Canisius led 1-0 after twenty minutes despite Mercyhurst maintaining pressure throughout the opening stanza. Kyle Gibbons beat junior goaltender Jordan Tibbett with just over 41 seconds left in the first after a brilliant centering feed from Patrick Sullivan.

Mercyhurst outshot Canisius 10-6 in the opening period. Then the nightmare of a second period got underway.

Just was given the gate at the 3:29 mark, but the major infraction was offset briefly by a Canisius penalty just three seconds later. However, junior defenseman Randy Cure was sent to the box at 4:10, giving Canisius a 4-on-3 advantage, and the Griffs took advantage.

Gibbons scored his second goal of the night at the 4:36 mark. Ben Danford and Cody Freeman had the assists, stretching the Canisius lead to 2-0. The Lakers killed off the remainder of the major before encountering more frustration.

Mastrodicasa tallied his first collegiate goal, or so Mercyhurst thought, at the 10:12 mark of the second, wristing a shot from just inside the center red line that took a wicked bounce past Canisius goaltender Tony Capobianco. However, the Canisius bench looked at the video board and complained that one of the Lakers was offsides on the play. After checking the video, the officials rescinded the goal, keeping the Lakers in a 2-0 hole.

“I only saw one angle and the angle that we kept seeing on the video board clearly looked like we were back onside,” said Gotkin. “But, I wasn't privy to all of the other angles the referees had a look at and they were adamant that we were offsides. And, if they say we were offsides, then we were offsides. But, obviously that was a big changing point. It would have made it 2-1 and a goal like that could've rattled even a star goalie like Tony Capobianco.”

Just over two minutes later, Ralph Cuddemi gave Canisius a 3-0 lead at the 12:31 mark, with assists from Preston Shupe and Matthew Grazen.

But, sophomore Matthew Zay got Mercyhurst on the board less than a minute later, cutting the Canisius lead to 3-1. After a faceoff win by junior Daniel O'Donoghue, Jones took a shot from the point that was stopped by Capobianco. However, Zay was there for the rebound and slid the puck through Capobianco's five-hole for his 13th goal of the season.

But, just like the first period, the Griffs scored with under a minute left in the frame to recapture the three-goal lead. Cuddemi buried his second of the game and fourth of the season with assists from Tyler Wiseman and Preston Shupe.

Mercyhurst outshot Canisius 12-11 in the second period.

In the third, Jones scored an early power play goal, his seventh goal of the season, drawing the Lakers within two. Jones snuck in the back door and slid a shot past Capobianco to cut the Canisius lead to 4-2. Grant Blakey and Daniel Bahntge had the assists on the tally.

“Just talking in the locker room after the second, we knew we needed a quick strike,” said Jones. “We felt good after that goal and we thought we had some momentum after that. Unfortunately, we caught a bad break on the 2-on-1 after that.”

That 2-on-1 opportunity for Canisius resulted in a 5-2 Griffin lead at the 7:03 mark. Cody Freeman snapped a shot over the glove hand of Tibbett, ending the junior goaltender's night. Gibbons and Ben Parker had the assists.

Senior goaltender Max Strang entered and allowed a goal just 1:14 later off the stick of Torrey Lindsay. Carl Larsson had the assist. Canisius would wrap up the scoring at 14:42 with a power play goal from Parker. Gibbons and Danford had the helpers.

Mercyhurst outshot Canisius 14-9 in the third period and held a 36-26 advantage in shots during the contest. Goaltending proved to be the difference as Tibbett and Strang combined to stop just 19-of-26 shots. Capobianco stopped 34 shots to earn his 18th win of the season.

Canisius went 3-for-6 on the power play while the Lakers went 1-for-5.

Chiasson and Jones were named to the All-Tournament Team at the post-game awards ceremony. Chiasson scored a pair of goals in the semifinal, including the game-winner. Jones had an assist in the semifinal and a goal and an assist in the title game.

Mercyhurst concludes its season with a 19-17-5 record and will say goodbye to four seniors – Chiasson, Blakey, Strang, and defenseman Charlie Carkin.